I Remember Momma and the Good Friday Prayer

It has been a strange week for me. For one....I think I have blogged almost everyday and two......Wednesday would have been my mom's 77th birthday. It has been brought up to me that I talk a great deal about my mom in my blogs. I guess it is true. Her words of wisdom and the education she gave me....stay with me to this day. They can't help but spill over into my everyday thinking....and they do. Not a day goes by that I don't quote her, think about her...or and I know she is in heaven laughing now.....act like her. 

For those of you who knew my mom....you know she was a force to be reckoned with, for those of you who didn't....I can only say I am sorry, for she is not someone you would soon forget. My mother was an amazing woman. She had a firey Irish temper and she could put the fear of God in you if you got on her bad side. She was also beautiful, smart and I only  once ever heard her tell a lie. She hated liars and if you lied to her.....did I mention she had a firey Irish temper? She was very smart and there was nothing she couldn't do if she put her mind to it. She was kind and spiritual and when she laughed...it was always a chain reaction for everyone around her. This just made her laugh harder until everyone in the room was in tears. Mom always taught by example and she could tell the greatest stories. Her stories were better than any tv show or movie, because they were always true. She had a stubbornness and determination that few could rival and she was fiercely protective of those she loved. She also had a very hard to challenge moral compass with a black and white view of right and wrong. Most of all though....she was an amazing mother. Her children ALWAYS came first. I was to say the least....very blessed to be able to call her mom.

It has been a little over 10 years since we said good-bye. It was at this time that she told me the only lie I ever knew her to tell. She said...."Don't worry. I will be fine!" She was not and I think she knew she would not be. I miss that woman every day. God though in His infinite wisdom has not taken her completely from me, for every time I look at David's smile, see Z's kind heart or deal with Wesley's stubbornness.....she is here. She is smiling and she is reminding me that through my kids....she lives on. Occasionally when I look in the mirror....I also see her face. I remember a day in my teens when her wisdom at the time seemed anything but wise and I was having my own fit of stubbornness that I told myself that I would never be like her. Little did I know at the time....I already was.

Wednesday was a really difficult day for me and I just couldn't bring myself to think about her too much. For whatever reason....this year I am really feeling her loss. Today though....I am better and I am remembering that a force like Mom is never truly gone and she will live on in my heart and my blogs forever.

Speaking of Mom and her stories...she had her own little idiosyncrasies. Today is Good Friday.....a day where Christians around the world honor the greatest sacrifice known to man. God gave His only Son and allowed Him to die on the cross....for our sins. Mom told me one time...that in her lifetime, the weather on Good Friday had been stormy or at the very least overcast more Good Friday's in her life than it had been nice. I have no doubt Mom knew what she was talking about....as she probably kept track somewhere. She was like that. After she died, I found a calendar that Mom had kept one year and each day she had documented the high, the low, the weather conditions and a little statement of how she felt about that particular days weather. Mom was a weather freak of sorts....so yeah.....she probably knew exactly how many Good Friday's had been stormy vs. nice.

As I said....Good Friday is honored by Christians around the world. It is part of Holy Week which starts on Holy Thursday and ends on Easter Sunday when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and the end of Lent. As a Catholic....we view Good Friday as a solemn day of fasting, abstaining, prayer and introspection into what Christs life, death and resurrection means to us. By fasting and abstaining, we continue with eating no meat on Friday and today we eat only two small meals, one larger meal and nothing in between. Traditionally this is also a day of prayer especially between the hours of noon and 3 p.m.....the time when Jesus was suffering and ultimately died.

One prayer that my mother taught us she called the Good Friday Prayer. We would say it as a family 33 times between noon and 3 p.m. on Good Friday....for whatever special intention we had. Often we would pray for family or friends we knew were in need and never did I know of this prayer not being answered. Apparently I am not the only one who knows the power of this prayer for you will find it all over the internet on Good Friday. I will share it at the end of this blog in case anyone is interested.

To me....Good Friday is possibly one of...if not the most important day of the year to Christians. It is a day that shows us pure sacrifice for the love of others. While God may have tested Abraham asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac, He did not make him carry it out. However....God did sacrifice His own son. It was to show us the love He had for all of us. How His heart must have broken to see His beautiful Son suffer so horrifically at the hands of the very people He was paying the ultimate sacrifice to save. It kind of makes you wonder why God hasn't done away with us long before now....because this sacrifice seems to have long been forgotten or at the very least....disregarded by many.

So this morning...I opened my eyes at 4 a.m. and never closed them again. My head was full of Good Friday, Mom and wondering what today's weather would bring. Yes...I know...another one of those blogs that you need a GPS to get through. Sorry....maybe next week...... Ah...who am I kidding?  ;)

May you have a blessed Good Friday!

Good Friday Prayer

Oh my Lord Jesus

I humbly beg of thee by

the merits of thy Precious

Blood and by the Divine Heart

and by the intercession of

thy cruel death to assist

me in my present necessity

(Make Your Request)

AMEN

Say: 33 times from 12:00 noon

to 3:00 pm